My Fabulous Forty-Something Father Becomes a Bride - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My father was an important official at court. He had recently rendered outstanding service and returned to the capital to report on his commission.

Many of the princes wanted to draw him to their side.

For reasons beyond me, one of the surest signs that two political allies were very best friends was a marriage between their families.

And so the Empress set her sights on my sister and me.

She issued an edict ordering someone from our family to marry her nephew. With that, the alliance would be sealed.

Father had only just returned to the capital and knew little about what had been happening there, so he hurried to find out what sort of splendid son-in-law awaited him.

What he learned made him wish the answer had simply killed him.

The Empress’s nephew was accomplished in every vice—drinking, gambling, whoring, and idling away his days. He had beaten several girls to death in brothels, and though still unmarried, he already had a three-year-old son.

He had behaved himself a little better lately, but only because he had found a woman with whom he shared a supposedly undying love. He was too busy fighting his family for her sake to go out causing trouble.

In short, any daughter sent into that household would suffer.

One had to wonder whether the Empress meant to forge an alliance or start a blood feud.

My elder sister already had a sweetheart. Their families had reached a verbal agreement, and in another dozen days or so, once an auspicious date was chosen, his family would formally come to propose.

I, too, dreamed of a young man with whom I might spend the rest of my life. I had not decided who he was yet, but I had written down all the qualifications. All that remained was for my parents to find him.

Father dragged his ailing body before the Emperor to plead on his knees.

Our family was too humble to deserve such favor, he said. Please, withdraw the decree.

He never even got to see the Emperor or Empress. All he received was a message from one of the Empress’s senior attendants.

“Boys will be boys. The young master simply doesn’t know any better yet. Once one of your esteemed daughters marries him, she can straighten him out.”

Father was so furious that he fainted on the spot.

My sister and I had grown up indulged by both our parents. Their standards for sons-in-law could hardly have been lower. Ideally, they wanted men willing to marry into our family.

We had never endured so much as a harsh word at home. Why should either of us marry into another household, serve an entire clan, and somehow be expected to reform the Empress’s nephew on top of it all? How could we not feel wronged?

One of the colleagues who carried Father home tried to reason with him. “Old Yu, Her Majesty means well. Daughters have to marry sooner or later. What difference does it make whom they marry?”

Father was an understanding man, exceptionally talented at putting himself in other people’s shoes.

“If your daughter were offered a son-in-law like this,” he asked, “would you marry him?”

His colleague fell silent. He would not have wanted to marry the boy either. He had only come as a lobbyist by silencing his conscience.

Yet he did not dare wash his hands of the matter and cheerfully promise his support. What if Their Majesties went mad again and assigned the same kind of splendid son-in-law to his family? What would he do then?

Father understood all of this. Understanding did not give him a way out.

And so the two officials sat together, sighing over their children’s marriages.